Forever (h.s.)

Chapter 27

Chapter 27: Ready Set Go

"Baby? Lovelyyyyy, where are you?" I heard Harry's voice echoing down the stairs and I turned to look.
"Harry? What?"
"Zayn's just called." Harry thundered down the stairs in a baggy sweatshirt and jeans, touching his lips to my cheek and heading for the fridge. I gave him a good twenty seconds to finish his sentence, but when he remained silent for long enough to pour some juice, put bread in the toaster, and start unloading the dishwasher, I sat down on the counter.
"Harry!" He turned, curls flopping over his forehead. He looked at me expectantly and I rolled my eyes. "What did Zayn say?!" Harry looked confused for a second, then he grinned.
"Oh yeah! Zayn called, and he said perrie wants everyone to go ice skating today. You know, before we end up on tour." I smiled widely and accepted the glass of milk Harry handed me. I loved ice skating.
"Everyone like everyone? Like claudia and rachey too?" I asked. Harry nodded.
"Good luck getting niall away from her these days anyway," Harry giggled. "Rachel's all he talks about." A little warm smile of happiness spread around the room. I knew Rachel had spent a lot of her life thinking she'd never find anyone, and here she had herself a Niall who'd never let her go.
"When are we going?" I asked, finishing off my milk and starting to slide off the counter, but Harry's hands caught my waist and pulled me back up.
"You've got a milk mustache," he told me amusedly, his warm mouth catching my upper lip and nudging playfully. "And in two hours."
An hour and a half later, Harry and I had gotten dressed and were bored out of our minds.
"Can we just go?" I asked, looking up from where I was braiding Harry's curls at the oven clock. The little green numbers stared at me, stoic, as if they never changed.
"Free skate doesn't start for another half hour, though," he replied.
"Dang." There was a silence. I tied off a tiny ringlet ponytail with a pink elastic and sat back on the couch with a sigh. Harry stood up and checked himself out in the mirror. A dimpled smile spread across his face that made me giggle.
"I look so good!" Even enduring the depression that came with boredom, I laughed.
"You do look so good," I told him cheerfully, pulling my own hair into a braid and standing up. "Let's just go, okay? I can't stand waiting." Harry nodded agreeably and pulled on his beanie, then went to pull the braids out of his curls but I stopped him. We stared at each other, having a battle with no words, me smiling manipulatively and his face changing from indignant to adoring to submissive.
"Fine," he groaned, ignoring the few little braids peeking out at his neck as he lifted our skates' bag onto his shoulder and opened the door for me. "Get out, you sneaky little thing." His voice sounded annoyed but when I caught his eye, he was grinning. I stuck out my tongue at he and he sighed. "Shut up before I do this to you." Harry gestured to his hair and I shrugged.
"One step ahead of you, angel," I giggled. "I've already done it." Now at the wheel, Harry laughed and shook his head.
"Why do I even bother with you, lovely?"
"I don't know!"
He giggled.
When we arrived at the ice rink, it was crowded and busy with a skate competition, so harry and I dropped our bag at a bench and he followed me obediently to the playground that stood twenty feet away. I sat on a swing and looked at him until he laughed and went around to push me. Once I was level with the treetops, or so it seemed, harry stepped back and called out,
"Jump!" His voice cracked and I giggled, then shook my head although he couldn't see me.
"No way!!" I called back, holding tight to the cold chains. "I'll die!"
"You'll be fine," he promised me, but I wasn't having it. From my perspective I was a million feet in the air, and I didn't trust myself not to smash my face on the frozen wood chips below. If Harry wanted me to jump, he was going down with me.
"I'll do it if you do," I told him sassily. He looked up at me, following me with his eyes, to see if I was serious. He scrunched up his nose. "You jump, I jump, Jack." Harry smiled, recognizing my reference, but didn't seem any more excited to jump off a moving swing. "You'll be fine!" I said, dragging out the last word like he had.
"Fine," harry grumbled, sitting down on the swing beside me and kicking his gangly legs to get up in the air. After a minute he'd gotten the hang of it and was almost at my level. When we were in sync above the trees, he caught my eye and said, "You first." I looked at his smiling face and to the ground. Biting my lip, I slipped my arms in front of the chain and took a deep breath. As my swing came forward, I let go. Cold air rushed past my ears and my feet hit ground with a sting. I tumbled to my back and stared at the sky, adrenaline flowing through me.
"You alright?" Harry called, concerned, maybe having second thoughts about forcing the love of his life to jump fifteen feet from the air. I sat up and curled my legs underneath me, tucking windswept hair behind my ear.
"Fine," I answered. "Your turn, handsome."
"Can i take a rain check?" he asked in a hesitant voice.
I grinned. "No." Harry's beanie flew off his head in the wind and landed next to me. I pulled it on and stood up, getting out of his way.
"You look cute," he crooned, but I shook my head.
"Stop trying to distract me, angel," I told him. "Jump." Harry sat forward in his swing and next thing I knew, he was in a ball on the cold ground, eyes shut tight. I sat on the ground and rolled him over, touching his cheek to open his eyes.
"Is it over?" he asked in a small voice. I laughed, and he sat up.
"You okay?" I asked him, leaning my head on his shoulder and fluttering my eyelashes. "Did you make it? Was it too scary? Are you alright?" Harry furrowed his eyebrows and stifled a smile.
"Shut up, you bully," he whined, but his eyes were full of a smile. "And gimme back my hat." I let him remove the beanie from my head and watched as he shoved it over curls that still had little love braids scattered through them. I let him pout for a few seconds before nosing my lips to his cheek. All faux anger gone, harry turned to me and slipped his arm around my back, moving my kiss onto his mouth.
I let him pull me to my feet, his long cold fingers sliding around my neck as he moved closer to my body. I could feel the heat from his chest through my sweater and his heart beating hard as his mouth moved expertly on mine. My mind went fuzzy and all I could focus on was his silky curls right between my fingers and the way his smile traveled through my mouth and into my heart.
My boots stumbled over a wooden beam as I followed his body and he caught me, pulling away for long enough to see his wild eyes. Then his lips were warm on my cheek, a breath echoing in a wintery white cloud by my ear. Harry smiled and licked his lips. I followed his long lashes with my eyes and was about to kiss him again when the screams of a dozen little girls in tight buns and tutus came barreling onto the playground.
"Comp must be over...." I said, detaching myself from harry enough to evade the judging gazes of the skater's mothers that lined the park.
"Maybe we'd better go," he said then, smiling and taking my hand in his. Just as we were stepping off the wood chips onto crusted snow, I saw a few familiar faces walking up from the parking lot.
"Niall! Rachey!" I called, letting go of Harry's hand but keeping contact with his fingers as I ran forward to meet them. Louis and his girlfriend Eleanor were close behind, and as we sat on the bench getting our skates on, zayn arrived with perrie.
"I'm so glad everyone came out to do this, you guys," perrie said sweetly from where she sat on the fence with zayn's arm protectively around her. "I know you're all very busy..."
"We don't mind at all, do we love?" Harry said, bouncing me on his knee. I grabbed his arm for support and giggled. Then I shook my head. Claudia, Rachel and I were all getting off school early that year anyways, to continue our schooling on tour with a tutor.
"Where's claudia and liam?" I asked, once free skate was starting and we were about to brave the ice. Just as I said it, they both came walking over the hill towards us.
"Our single pringles!" Louis called affectionately, then seemed to want to take it back when Liam's face saddened.
"Oh, Liam. You're not single," I said comfortingly. He shook his head. "Honey, just hold on. Fiona's arriving in four days!!" His face brightened considerably after remembering that, and was the first one out on the ice.
"I'm single!!" Claudia called cheerfully, wobbling to the wall and pushing off. Harry took my hand and helped me onto the rink, chuckling:
"Can't imagine why." I hit his arm and he laughed harder, correcting himself. "No really, she's lovely, don't hurt me love!" I giggled and shook my head at him. As long as I'd known Claudia, she'd been single. But something made me feel like fate couldn't handle keeping it up, and maybe, just maybe, she'd meet her harry sometime soon.
The afternoon at the ice rink was wonderful. Harry, Rachey, Niall and I came here almost every weekend, and were flying by the others with a laugh and maybe a nice little push. Perrie was much better than any of us, though, and was sweetly helping Zayn along with a helping hand. And arm. And face.
Claudia and Liam had a grand old time, laughing and falling and poking fun at the couples skating past them. I knew liam missed Fiona terribly, and her him as well, but the tour was in a week and a half and she was probably already packing.
We didn't see much of Eleanor and lou after the first hour or so, and all I could think was I hope those skater moms had taken their little girls home.
Towards the end of free skate it started to snow, those big fat flakes that stick to your eyelashes and make everything silent. Harry had his hand tight in mine and he turned, skating slowly backwards, to be face to face with me. I smiled up at him, affectionate eyes catching every snowflake in his dark curls.
"I'm so glad you're coming on the tour with me, lovely," he said. I nodded. "It's gonna be a blast," he continued. "All of us in one big house, just like at summer camp." I giggled. All the summer camps I'd ever been to were a bit more careful about who they put in houses together.
Harry jostled me from my thoughts with an excited, "And? Did I tell you? They've assigned us an opening band and everything who'll be traveling the whole tour with us." This was news. I sure hoped they were people nice to live with for a few months. "They're called Five Seconds of...five seconds of something and they're this really cool up and coming rock wannabe band. We've talked to them over Skype, they're really cool guys."
"That doesn't sound awful," I said, smiling.
"I know you don't love new people, lovely, but I promise. Five Seconds of....Summer! That's it. Summer. They're cool."
I laughed. "Okay angel. I believe you."
After skating, we all piled back into cars with pink cheeks and funny stories to meet up back at Harry's (my?) house for pizza and movies until the snow stopped. I knew everyone in the room well enough to recognize the battle of movie selection that was about to begin, so I caught rach's eye and we snuck out of the room just as Claudia said, "But it HAS to be action!"
"So, how's it going with Mr. Nialler?" I asked, sitting on the guest bed and scrunching up the unfamiliar comforter between my fingers. Rachel smiled, that big smile that reminded me of Fiona with Liam, and her cheeks flushed as she started talking about him.
"He's just like me, you know that feeling? He loves everything that I love. Pizza, food, movies, skating, pizza, food, all of it. And he loves me. And I absolutely know it. And that accent, and his hair, just I can't even believe I got him."
"I know that exact feeling!" I gushed right back. "Except the amount of pizza. You guys have that specialty." Rachey giggled and opened her mouth to speak again when a sassy Irish accent echoed in from the living room.
"Babe? Sayruh? We all know you're in there, we've chosen a movie, come out!" Rach and I caught each other's eye and laughed, locking arms as we left the room. Maybe not by blood, but sisters.
Rachey left my arm for Niall's, cuddling up in the crook of his shoulder between him and Zayn. Harry, as usual, had claimed us the reclining chair. I think he knew that I loved everyone there, but cuddling was for me and him and cuddle puddles were for when I was in the mood. I just loved him. I pulled my hood on and curled up on his chest, feeling his breath on my head. I looked up at him and asked,
"What did they choose?" I knew passive little harry would have sat back and let the others pick a movie. Harry grinned and wiggled his eyebrow at me, the angle giving him little chins that made me giggle. "Well?" He nodded towards the screen, where the title page of my favorite french movie, les choristes, was playing.
"Did you do this?" He knew it was my favorite and he knew rachey and I had watched it a hundred times together, so who else could have put in the request with both of us gone? "You actually stood up for yourself and got them to play a movie in another language?!" Harry nodded sheepishly. "I love you," I told him. He kissed my cheek.
Everyone besides me, rach, and harry were pleasantly confused by the entire movie, given nobody could figure out how to work the subtitles. But by the time rach and I started singing "la nuit" as loud as we could, everyone else was sleeping, or pretending to.
"Je t'aime, ma cherie," harry whispered as the credits rolled down the screen. He kissed my lips with a sleepy sigh and next thing I knew, he was lightly snoring in my hair. As soon as I heard Niall's murmurs to Rachey cease, I caught her eye through the dark. She nodded. I nodded. I picked up the remote and rewound les choristes to "la nuit" four more times before I fell asleep in Harry's arms.
Four days later, harry, Liam and I were standing at gate 37 and waiting (liam and I, anyway) impatiently for Fiona to come out. The minutes went by like a snail and a half until finally, FINally, I saw her familiar light brown head bobbing through the crowd trailed by a few turquoise suitcases.
"FIONA!" My voice cracked, and she looked up. Her eyes filled up with two kinds of love as she spotted us and as she ran over, she seemed conflicted on who to hug first so I stepped into Harry's arms and Fiona went barreling straight into the long awaiting arms of her faithful boyfriend.
I watched with a warm and fuzzy heart as liam held her tight against him, tears in his puppy brown eyes as he whispered to her over and over "I love you I missed you I love you". After a million kisses, Fiona detached herself from liam and came over to hug me equally tightly.
"I missed you," she squealed. Then she pulled back, holding my arms, and looked from me to liam and back again. "Thank you."
"Welcome home, fio." I smiled. "You're welcome."